Site Search Navigation

Site Navigation

Site Mobile Navigation

Cover Photo

Credit
All photographs by Adam Glanzman

The 75-Year-Old Arm Wrestler

Norm Devio is still pulling ahead of competitors who are twice his size and half his age.

By ADAM GLANZMANSEPT. 19, 2016

WEST BRIDGEWATER, Mass. — In a musty, dungeonlike basement here, more than a dozen sweaty men and women descend the steep steps every Thursday night to grunt and groan while they work on their arm-wrestling techniques.

A first-time visitor might write off Norm Devio, 75. At his age, the 5-foot-7, 155-pound Devio, of Hopkinton, Mass., does not look like the godfather of arm-wrestling. But he has dominated the sport for much of the past 40 years.

In the cramped basement, the arm wrestlers jostle among tables. Someone bumps into Devio.

“Hey, watch it; that’s abuse of the elderly,” he shouts, and everyone laughs. They know it is a joke because, on the table, Devio transcends his age, defeating opponents twice his size and 50 years younger.

Devio is said to have won more than 25 national arm-wrestling titles in various leagues in the 150-pound weight class. He has won with his right arm and his left arm, while sitting down and standing up. He represented the United States in the 1996 world championship in Virginia, where he placed second.

Plenty of great arm wrestlers, known as pullers, have dominated the sport at various times throughout the years, but what sets Devio apart is his longevity. No other puller has been as competitive as Devio has for so long. At an age when other top arm wrestlers have long since retired, Devio can enter a tournament anywhere and still be a top competitor.

“Norm is a legend,” said Bill Cox, director of the International Armwrestling Federation, which organizes arm-wrestling tournaments around North America. “The other arm wrestlers, they all look up to him and respect him.”

Devio entered his first professional arm-wrestling tournament on a whim in 1975. It was the New England championships in Nashua, N.H., and Devio, a former gymnast, won the event, defeating other pullers who had been in the sport for years. In the decades since, he has competed, practiced and worked with other arm wrestlers in countless basements like this one across New England, along with out-of-the-way places like a pizza parlor in Middleborough, Mass., and the backroom of a kitchen-supply store in Manchester, N.H.

“He’s an idol, an icon, an inspiration and a true gentleman with an incredible legacy,” said Michael Shalhoub, who has won multiple national arm-wrestling titles.

During his prime in the 1980s and ’90s, Devio was unstoppable, no matter the weight class, Shalhoub said.

“Norman would walk into a tournament, and it was awe-inspiring to watch,” Shalhoub said. “Everyone knew he would win in the left, right and over all. At that point, all the guys knew they were only shooting for second place, at best.”

Devio and some of his peers taught Sylvester Stallone a few arm-wrestling techniques for the 1987 movie “Over the Top,” which was partly filmed during a real tournament in Las Vegas. Devio said Stallone had not been quite the champion he portrayed in the film, and that he had beaten Stallone in a practice match.

Despite Devio’s formidable accomplishments, Shalhoub said, few will ever know of his greatness.

“In his weight class, people will still get nervous when they see that Norm is competing,” Shalhoub said. “It’s a shame that the young guns today may never know who and what Norm was. This was before the internet.”

With a wall of arm-wrestling trophies acting as a gilded backdrop in his otherwise dark basement, Devio talked about his time in the sport.

To maintain his competitive edge, Devio, a former high school gym teacher, follows a strict workout routine that includes daily aerobic exercise combined with weekly weight lifting. He curls a 110-pound barbell in three sets of 10, a feat most men his size and age would struggle to accomplish.

“I think my work ethic has been the main reason I’m still competing,” he said. “So many people, as they get older, they just think they can’t do as much as they used to do, and that’s just not true.”

Still, the physical nature of the sport has taken its toll. Devio has had multiple arm and shoulder operations, as well as a hip replacement. These days, he competes only with his right arm because of an injury to his left elbow. Doctors would not operate on him, in part because of his age and also because the arm was still functioning properly — except when he was arm wrestling.

Devio said he had lost track of how many tournaments he had won; he said he knew for certain, however, that there were more than 500 trophies in his basement. His collection has grown to such an extent that he has started giving them away to friends and family members who come to visit.

“The trophies don’t really mean anything to me,” he said. “A lot of times, I don’t even take the trophies home. My grandson has about 15 of them.”

Cox recalled an occasion when Devio was asked for an autograph after a tournament victory. Instead, he handed the young fan his trophy. According to Devio’s friends in the sport, that is just the type of guy he is.

“Everyone has a ton of respect for him, win or lose — most of them lose to him — but everyone loves him,” Cox said. “All they talk about is what a great guy that Norm Devio is — everyone always roots for him.”

While Devio’s reputation in the sport is mostly confined to the United States, he is also known in other countries.

“There are a bunch of world champions in Turkey and other parts of Eastern Europe who know Norm,” Cox said. “They’re all aware of his accomplishments.”

At a recent arm-wrestling tournament in South Portland, Me., Devio quietly entered the loud restaurant hosting the competition. Immediately, arm wrestlers new and old, some of whom he had never met, approached him to say hello. Newcomers to the sport who had only watched Devio on YouTube turned to one another, whispering, “I think that’s Norm Devio over there.”

Devio became slightly uncomfortable with the attention, but it was nothing new. At the table, all the distractions faded away as he again proved that he would not let age stand in the way of another shot at victory.